67 vw bug handles badly when it rains

[Herrbern]

Hi,

Yesterday, it was raining in Luxembourg and I had to drive my car. The first time since 15 years that the car was driven in rainy conditions.
Now, I have been surprised by the bad handling of the car when it rains. It was like driving on ice. Fairly no grip at all on 4 wheels. Even a burnout was possible with my stock 1500cc engine when the streetlight turned green ! What a difference compared with the handling on dry roads.
My tires are radial BF Goodrich with whitewalls dated 0313 and are looking new. Could it be my tires that are ageing ? Are these tires known for such bad handling ?

Thanks,
Bernard

[T-F-E]

How old are the tires?

[66brm]

[Chickensoup]

[TDCTDI]

Another factor is the tread wear rating the tires have. A high tread wear rating means that the rubber is a harder compound. This, when combined with age, translates into a tire that does not grip the road surface, especially in cold and/or wet conditions.
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[Mark Evans]

Tire pressure?
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'63 Ragtop

[Herrbern]

Tire pressure is a little too high. But do you think that could be causing the bad handling on wet roads ?

[iowegian]

[67rustavenger]

[bluebus86]

oil on the road can be an issue,often an issue with first rains of the season, as oil from road which has been there all dry season will be lifted on top of standing water. wrong tire pressure, bad tires. ten years is oft the expected life of tires, some last longer, some dont last ten years. the rubber can harden resulting in less road grip.
I had to replace some 17 year old off road tires that had lots of tread left, but they no longer gripped do to hardening of the rubber.

first thing is make sure tire pressure is correct, the Bug front tire pressure is pretty low by todays modern car standard. check your owners manual for recommended tire pressure, see link..

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/8_66bug/49.jpg

front tires as low as 16 psi!

of course radial tires are different than bias ply tires.

also make sure shocks are still good, they effect handling too. along with steering gear, ball joints etc...

but hey, if it is frozen water, all bets are off, you need snow chains.

and of course, slow down in the rain some fools drive in the rain like nuts, you got to slow down, for even with a perfect modern car, traction in rain is reduced verses dry roads.

Bug On!
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[lboos]

YES!
I installed new tires this year. The tire shop did the typical 36PSI fill. On dry streets, the car handled awful. It skiddered all over the lanes when rounding gentle curves in the road.
Once I lowered the pressure, 17PSI front, 26PSI rear. The car felt much more stable and predictable.
Good Luck.[/quote]

Same thing happened to me twice, once when i bought new tires and again a few months latter for front end work, as soon as i got home and checked the tire pressure, they all had 35 psi.
The correct tire pressure on a bug makes a big diff. in the way it will handle, dry or wet.